From the information I gathered about lateral thinking, it means to solve problems using unconventional means, sometimes even without using logic. Edward de Bono invented the L-game to illustrate lateral thinking. However, I fail to see how lateral thinking is used in solving the game. The L-game is essentially a very simplified version of Chess, both are strategy games and Chess is almost always the textbook example of logical games. In the analysis of the L-game, I found myself using purely logic (i.e. working backwards from the losing positions and identify which positions are "dangerous" etc). I do not see how "illogical means" could better help a player in winning the game. I might have misunderstood the meaning of lateral thinking, could anyone clarify?
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$\begingroup$ @LiVoonLoke this is now a great question! Thanks for improving it. $\endgroup$ – Seanny123 Jun 2 '17 at 1:06
The idea is not to use lateral thinking to win the game, but to teach people to think laterally.
The L can be flipped and/or rotated as well as translated - why should you do a particular transform, and when. What move to make requires a certain amount of lateral thought.
Similarly in moving a neutral piece - not all the moves available are immediately obvious to a novice player - they must learn them.
By the time someone has mastered a few of the advanced moves, they are beginning to think laterally (at least that is the idea!).
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$\begingroup$ But that sounds to me more like memorising some moves after a certain number of trial and errors. $\endgroup$ – Li Voon Loke Jun 9 '17 at 19:41